I appreciate the emails from constituents with suggestions: (What about tiny homes? What about hotel conversions? What about… spare bedrooms?) and the answer is that all of these options help. Every new bedroom offers one more opportunity and helps reduce scarcity. Bonus if those bedrooms are located in areas where people want to live, close to work, or services.
We need non-market solutions, and this should be the priority for public investment. Last week we celebrated the announcement of 10 new neighbourhood spaces that will become non-profit housing close to existing services, transit, and schools.
Edmonton has an aggressive plan to end homelessness. It’s a great strategy, and if the province and federal government help with construction funding, we will get there. Learn more at edmonton.ca/welcomehomes
With 200,000 Edmontonians moving to our city in the last four years, building new housing contributes to improving affordability and reducing homelessness on our streets. We all should have opportunities to live where we want to live.
I recognize there are many things we must weigh when we look at our housing ecosystem. Building new housing is not without its challenges or concerns from neighbours. I am always interested in new ideas, how our systems evolve, and how we can address problems our city is facing. How are other cities managing the similar challenges? Are there new studies and what are they showing?
Like Edmonton, many North American cities are struggling with homelessness, and we are not unique.
Housing costs are by far the strongest determinant of homelessness. Areas with high costs have high homelessness rates, and areas with low housing costs have low homelessness rates. When rents rise quickly, homelessness does, too. When rent growth is contained, homelessness drops. Increasing the housing supply helps hold rent growth down, making housing more affordable. But adding low-cost housing is especially helpful in preventing homelessness.
In an effort to bring back low-cost housing, some states that are struggling with high homelessness rates have begun to remove legal barriers to the development of co-living buildings that feature private micro-units with shared bathrooms and kitchens. If more states and cities reduce regulatory barriers to this type of housing—and ideally provide incentives to kick-start its development—the nation has a real opportunity to once again make homelessness rare and ensure that the most financially vulnerable Americans, such as those earning minimum wage or receiving Social Security benefits, can afford a place to live.
SOURCE:
https://www.pew.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2025/07/how-states-and-cities-decimated-americans-lowest-cost-housing-option
How States and Cities Decimated Americans’ Lowest-Cost Housing Option: The intertwined history of single-room occupancy and homelessness in the U.S.
